NOAA's Fisheries
Service published the 1999 List
of Fisheries, which categorizes each U.S. commercial fishery
based on the number of marine mammals seriously wounded or killed
during fishing operations. The Commerce Department's National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration made the announcement
today, as required by the federal Marine
Mammal Protection Act.

Each fishery is placed into one of three
categories according to the level of interaction with marine
mammals. Category I consists of fisheries with frequent injuries
and deaths of marine mammals. Fisheries in Category II have occasional
interactions, and fisheries in Category III have seldom or no
injuries and deaths of marine mammals.

Commercial fishermen who participate in
fisheries placed in Category I or II must register in the Marine
Mammal Assessment Program and submit a $25 fee unless registration
has been integrated with a pre-existing state or federal registration
program. The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) requires that
all commercial fishermen submit a report to the Fisheries Service
within 48 hours of the end of each fishing trip if a marine mammal
is injured or killed incidental to fishing operations.

Changes for 1999 adds the Atlantic herring
midwater trawl fishery to the list for the first time and places
it in Category II. This fishery includes vessels using midwater
trawls as pair trawls (one net towed by two vessels). This also
affects the current Category III listing for the Gulf of Maine
Mid-Atlantic coastal herring trawl fishery. The Fisheries Service
determined that there is little difference between the boats'
fishing or gear used in Maine waters and those fishing in other
Atlantic waters. As a result, the new Category II listing for
the Atlantic herring midwater trawl fishery also includes those
currently operating in the Gulf of Maine, Mid-Atlantic coastal
herring trawl fishery and removes them from last year's Category
III. Fishermen participating in these fisheries will receive
registration information from the agency's Northeast regional
office in Gloucester, Mass.

Other 1999 changes included reclassifying
the Gulf of Mexico menhaden purse seine fishery from Category
III to Category II based on the observed bycatch of coastal bottlenose
dolphins from 1992-1995. Fishermen participating in this fishery
will be sent registration information from the Southeast regional
office in St. Petersburg, Fla.

The 1999 list also clarifies and simplifies
existing requirements. Administrative changes include updates
to the list of species that interact with commercial fisheries
and to the number of participants in some fisheries. In addition,
minor changes in fishery descriptions include renaming the North
Carolina haul seine fishery as the Mid-Atlantic haul seine fishery,
renaming the Northeast multispecies sink gillnet fishery as
the Northeast sink gillnet fishery, and modifying the name of
several Alaska fisheries to include the target species.

The Annual List of Fisheries classifies
fisheries based on a two-tiered, stock-specific approach that
first addresses the total impact of all fisheries on each marine
mammal stock and then addresses the impact of individual fisheries
on each stock. The annual rate of marine mammals seriously injured
or killed incidental to commercial fisheries is compared to the
Potential Biological Removal (PBR) level for each stock. The
PBR level is defined in MMPA as the maximum number of animals
that may be removed from a marine mammal stock while allowing
that stock to reach or maintain its optimum sustainable population.
Tier 1 considers the cumulative fishery mortality and serious
injury for a particular stock, while Tier 2 considers fishery-specific
mortality and serious injury for a particular stock.

Tier 1: If the total annual mortality
and serious injury across all fisheries that interact with a
stock is less than or equal to 10 percent of the PBR level of
such a stock, then all fisheries interacting with that stock
would be placed in Category III. Otherwise, these fisheries are
subject to the next tier to determine their classification.

Tier 2 - Category III: Annual mortality
and serious injury in a given fishery is less than or equal to
1 percent of the PBR level.

Tier 2 - Category II: Annual mortality
and serious injury in a given fishery is greater than 1 percent
but less than 50 percent of the PBR level.

Tier 2 -Category I: Annual mortality and
serious injury of a stock in a given fishery is greater than
or equal to 50 percent of the PBR level.

NOAA's Fisheries Service is the federal
agency dedicated to protecting and preserving our nation's living
marine resources through scientific research, management, enforcement,
and the conservation of marine mammals and other protected marine
species and their habitat.